From the moment the hydrangeas in her Amagansett garden burst into bloom each summer, Pret-a-Surf’s Karen Mulligan can be found elbow deep in the lush greenery that surrounds her beach house. “It’s my late-afternoon ritual. I can easily spend two or three hours out there,” says the swimwear designer. She’s not the only one with a trowel in hand this season. New York City filmmaker Maggie Betts devotes her early mornings to maintaining the vivid rose bushes and succulents outside her Greenwich Village brownstone, while fashion designer Maria Cornejo retreats to the backyard of her Cobble Hill home—complete with a twelve-foot-tall fig tree—in the early evenings. “Gardening is my form of meditation; it’s a way to clear my head,” she says.

If the occasional scraped knee or sunburn comes with the proverbial territory, these chic outdoor hobbyists seem blissfully unfazed: Their arsenal of quick beauty tricks and natural healing remedies are that rare combination of trial-and-error ingenuity and word-of-mouth wisdom that actually happen to work.

Topping off the list of green thumb essentials? A sturdy (and stylish) pair of gloves. “Your hands really suffer when gardening,” says organic skin-care founder Tata Harper, who tends to ten acres of land on her farm in rural Shoreham, Vermont, wearing her favorite floral-print Ethel Jubilees. For an extra boost after a long day in the garden, “I like to mix up a homemade hand mask—it’s just a few tablespoons of honey, yogurt, and brown sugar, with a couple of drops of lemon and grapefruit essential oil—to exfoliate dead skin.” On torn cuticles, Harper dabs her Replenishing Nutrient Complex (“it has antibacterial properties and is very healing,” she explains of the essential oil–based blend). Mulligan, for her part, is loyal to Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Ultra-Moisturizing Hand Therapy, while Brooklyn florist Amy Merrick slathers on Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream. “I also keep a little Acca Kappa nail brush by the sink and a four-sided buffer to keep my nails short and shiny,” she says.

That kind of constant wear and tear on hands may render frequent polish changes a necessity, but there’s much to be said for the enduring power of one perfect pair of sunglasses. To shield her eyes from the summer sunshine during an afternoon of plotting and pruning, Cornejo swears by an oversize pair of wraparound MYKITA for Zero + Maria Cornejo shades created for her own spring 2013 runway show. “They’re super lightweight, handmade, and they just stay on,” she says. Merrick applies plenty of Kiehl’s Activated Sun Protector Lotion for Face SPF 50—“it’s nongreasy and protects my quick-to-burn Irish skin”—before taking cover under her favorite Brixton hat. “The ties keep it from flying off, and the brim is just the right length for blocking the sun but still being able to see.” Harper prefers an all-natural SPF, like Vive Sana Solar to Polar Ultra SPF 40, and “I also use the baby version on my children,” she says of slathering Hunter, four, Grace Paloma, three, and Tata Mia, one, in the mineral-based formula. “They’re my garden helpers!”

When it comes to banged-up knuckles and knees, simple and straightforward potions work best: Mulligan spot-treats the old-fashioned way, with Bag Balm’s hundred-year-old healing salve, while Betts is obsessed with massaging Johnson’s Baby Oil onto dry hands and legs. “It makes your skin soft and it’s unscented,” she says—a bonus when it comes to fending off insect bites. (Note: Cornejo swears that burning frankincense sticks or copal candles in her garden also helps “keep the bugs away.”)

For any lingering scrapes, Brave Soldier’s natural antiseptic ointment is a universal crowd-pleaser—unless, that is, you’re dead set on upping your landscaping street cred. After all, Betts admits with a laugh, “a little thorn prick or two is like a badge of honor among gardeners.”